Bought a 35 quart ss stockpot and should be great. Also bought 12" ss thing like an ice bucket. I want to cut a hole and weld ot to the lid. Then put copper piping on top of that. I did this with my 20qt and it worked well, I used welder and dremel cut off wheels to make it, but it wasnt perfect and leaked, so had to use that flour paste every time and was a bit of pain.

what should I use to curt large round hole in lid? What should I use to weld together?

also before the copper pipe would get loose when moving. Is there a union or bung that works best to go from hole in ss to copper fittings? I was thinking male on inside and female on outside then weld/braze together.

Consider welding a triclamp to your cover (with inert purge on the backside while welding), drilling your hole with a holesaw after it's welded and using an EZ flange or TC adapter on the bottom of your column.

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I got the pot lid cut and fit the other piece on it. Will post pics later. Need to weld them together. Issue is I cannot find a way to weld 3/4" copper to the stainless lid. I was thinking on using a male and female copper but cannot get it screwed together enough to press the stainless steel. I did same last time but had an issue with 3' of copper on top of stainless lid and the weight moves too much. Any suggestions?

I used a brass compression tank connecter to connect the copper tube to the pot lid and replaced the rubber washer with a home made PTFE gasket. The plumbing store assured me that the brass was lead free but I pickled it just incase.

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We need a few more details which was why I asked for pictures in my previous post... Pictures of what you've got, not pictures of everything once you get it together... We might be able to save you a lot of aggravation... You mentioned a 3' column but you haven't even mentioned whether this is a pot or reflux still... The more information we have the better we can assist you without doing so blindly...

I'll be putting a 3' 3/4" copper pipe straight up, then 3-45degree fittings, then a 3/4" to 1/2" reducer and 1/2" piping to 3/8" (with union to remove for storage) then through a coil in 5 gallon bucket.

It's a pot still, and mainly a rum or whisky mix. This worked great in my 5gal but the copper pipe's weight would swat when moving and then eventually get loose and I would have to solder it and cover with the flour paste.

I'm thinking a compression fitting would be good, or welding a ss bung and screwing the copper pipe into the bung.

I have a cheap arc welder but am very novice, also have a oxy map torch, plus normal torches. Just not sure best option to weld the ss. I need to weld the lid to the top thing, and then the copper/ss bung to the lid.

If it's a pot still the why the hell do you need a 3' column...??? For hobby scale stills that pot column won't do anything except make you life miserable, as you have already discovered... Just come off the inverted bucket and head to your worm and be done with it... You see, give us enough information and you'll get the answer you need... The whole pot column issue has been discussed here and proven to not be nearly as beneficial as folks used to think... Save that copper and put it to better use down the road...

Edited to add: As for the arc welder, skip that idea... Just solder the stainless to stainless because it is less detrimental to the purity of the stainless... Arc welding will cause the metal to be more prone to rusting, not to mention the possibility of burn through...

I am not sure but I think he means 3 ft of 3/4 in copper. +1 rad. Yea solder it in and solder the 3/4 in and connect it with something other than brass. Maybe a union if you have to and pickle it but a compression filling would might be better or maybe jus leave it in copper and slide in and slide out and put a hose clamp on it for easy dis asy. Better idea connect it all into a liebig and hard solder everything. Less chance of leaks and really efficient.

justinm001 wrote:Bought a 35 quart ss stockpot and should be great. Also bought 12" ss thing like an ice bucket. I want to cut a hole and weld ot to the lid. Then put copper piping on top of that. I did this with my 20qt and it worked well, I used welder and dremel cut off wheels to make it, but it wasnt perfect and leaked, so had to use that flour paste every time and was a bit of pain.

what should I use to curt large round hole in lid? What should I use to weld together?

also before the copper pipe would get loose when moving. Is there a union or bung that works best to go from hole in ss to copper fittings? I was thinking male on inside and female on outside then weld/braze together.

LOL this is a very contradictory post "Did this with a 20qt and it worked well"? but it leaked,and the copper would get loose! I don't consider that working well. I am fairly new here but I have chosen to follow instructions and read!!! SO, I know there are post on this site that tell how to soft solder them together! how to build easy flanges one guy even cut copper to stabilize his homemade flange. I do not understand that if you first one failed why you spent more money but went the same route??? If you can't do the work then buy a keg that holds 60qts and put a tri-clover clamp on it

That appears to be a Revereware saucepan and, if so, is of high quality... That stuff lasts forever if taken care of...

Just a heads up that the composition cork in that picture is not a good choice for sealing that join... You have no idea what type of bonding agent was used and it could leach into your spirits... Only pure musical cork or solid cork should be used... Or some other type of seal, like PTFE tape...

Earlier, you wrote about using male/female threaded fittings to attach your 3/4 inch riser to that ss bucket thing. I tried the same thing - doesn't work so well. I ended up using just the male threaded fitting. I used a 1-1/4" inch hole saw to make a hole in a ss mixing bowl (note: I'm attaching a 1" riser. For 3/4" you would probably need a 1" hole.), put a ss washer on the threaded end of the adapter followed by a ptfe/cardboard gasket, insert the threaded end through the hole, and finally, use a 3/4" NPT ss locknut on the inside to secure the connection. Probably also a good idea to wrap the threads all the way up to the shoulder of the threaded fitting with ptfe tape. I also used a ptfe flat gasket before the ss locknut so as not to gouge my ss bowl. You can then just put your riser into the slip end of the fitting and use flour paste or ptfe tape to seal against leaks.

Ebay and Amazon both have the ss locknuts. I think they were 4 or 5 dollars each.